Happy Haunting!

I'm sending you trick or treating to fabulous Flickrland :)

1. July G&G Pieces Haunted Ornies 003, 2. skull, 3. 淳 Kiyoshi, needle felted umbrella bat, 4. July G&G Pieces Haunted Ornies 009, 5. Ribbbbbbons for Halllloooooooweeen, 6. Ghost Cake, 7. Ghibeline Ghost Front, 8. Kooky Skelly Clown Ornie, 9. Halloween Haunted House, 10. Halloween has come to visit..., 11. nominal comfort, 12. horrible harold two, 13. Griselda (sold), 14. The Nightmare Before Christmas, 15. Miniature Witch/Wizard Book, 16. Halloween Cupcake: II

I'll come back tomorrow with photos of my school Halloween.

Rainy stormy election day

Here finally is the family photo taken at the Bollywood party.

It is one stormy day.
Wind and rain.
And a tree down...

Well.. halfway down.. heh..
It's a tree that has been leaning towards our neighbors cars for a while now. About a year ago we made the precaution of tying a rope to it to guide it away of the parking space if it fell down. What do you know.. it worked.
It is now leaning on our other neighbors' woodpile. It has a meeting with teh motorsaw tomorrow, once the rain stops.

It's local (city) elections today. Braving the weather in thirty minutes.

Now dwell into the fun world of some of my Flickr faves:

1. Untitled, 2. Untitled, 3. Cake cookies, 4. recycled message board, 5. Blue Berry Cream Pie, 6. Lace Tree, 7. Robin's Egg Kitchen, 8. Flamingo Diner, 9. fabric pompom, 10. Mini newsagency 1, 11. Radio house interior, 12. The Red Brick Orchid, 13. Flowers, 14. Springcleaning, 15. Miniarc Bed No. 1 as Table Top Art, 16. Architecture in Miniature: Crystal Arcade East Wing 1

I'll be giving you a Halloween version later this week too!

...drrrrrummmrrrroollll, please!

I finally have the two lucky winners of my Halloween give-away (courtesy of Random.org ).

The little bitty items go to
dragonflyreflections!


The mini album goes to
KathrynAntyr!

Hip hip Halloween!

Extending the deadline

Since there still are several Halloween blog partygoers arriving (I have to admit I haven't gotten through all the blogs yet either!), I'm extending the give away until Wednesday :)

Party on...

Welcome my pretties...

Time for a witchy party.
I've got my orange stripey socks on, have you?
(mind you I also have on wool socks.. getting chilly here)

Not so witchy outside.
Except maybe for the wind. Gusting.
My rose manages to look pretty still.
With those yellow leaves.


And red berries against the pale blue sky.


Some last flowers reaching for the sun.


Lots of yellow up those silver birches...


..and lots of birch leaves in piles.


This I love.


I do believe fairies use these for drinking cups.

They must.

Outside is non-witchy.
This we've established.
Finland is quite non-Halloweeny in general.
Alas.

But indoors... in my house, now that's a different matter.
Altogether.

Last Halloween I found this foyer.
In my kitchen surprisingly enough.

Musty wallpaper.
A broom.
A pointed hat.
Ginger snaps...

..ooohh....

Could it be?
Shall we have a closer look?
Hold my hand?
I'm not sure of this place...


Is that a painting?
Is it alive..?

I don't think I want to ask...


I do like this plant though.. 100 euro bills!
Wonder if I could get a seedling?
If I asked nicely?


Lingonberry juice?
I hope.


And a cute little kitty cat.
She's not scary at all.
But who lives here?
There was no clue.

Except for the broom and pointy hat, of course.

Imagine my surprise when this year I find a living room in my dining room!

This time I got introduced too.
Esther Evelyn Everloopy.
Pleased to meet you.

I'm nosy.
Are you?

More musty wallpapers... and cobwebs.
I don't think she's really all that bothered with trivial things like dusting.


Is that a long lost relative?


Oh look, a froggie!
Or an ex..? Hmmm....


Esther clearly is a Harry Potter fan :)
She's sporting a really snazzy coat there too.
(thanks Anna!)


Cute rug.
I need one of those.


Oh my.
I wonder who that is...
I have a craving for licorice all of a sudden...


She doesn't clean her mirrors too often.


Never mind.
I wouldn't touch that either...


She's quite happy here.
She brought a couple ghosties too.
And lots of jack-o-lanterns!
Yay!


(this little fellow has been with me since I was ten or so...)


This ghostie is a new...errr...face..sheet?


They do look glowingly fabulous, don't they?
(well worth the jab to my thumb with an exacto knife...ouch. Make that a double triple quadruple ouch.)

Now what would a party be without some fun prizes?

Esther dug around her brimming broomcloset and got out some goodies to give away.

There is a fancy schmancy new broom and matching leather purse, a pumpkin carving kit, some books, a cake and a jack-o-lantern (I'm told the face glows in the dark).
This lot is all 1:12 scale.

I dug around my broo...ummm... cupboard and found a Halloween minialbum that simply needs your favorite photographs.

All you have to do is to leave a little message for me.

Let me know who you are.

Where you are from.

What are you dressing up as this year?

(I'll be a tree...I'll show you on Halloween)

Come back on Monday the 20th to see which two partyers won!

Now off you go to Miss Vanessa's fanciful blog and go party on through the megalong list of Halloween blog partyers (right there on her sidebar).

That's what I'll be doing.

And off she flew with her stripey socks and purple broom...

Cackling with loads of chocolate on her purple purse.

In search of adventures.

Something fun happening tomorrow

I was really craving to make some jack-o-lanterns today.
Alas, no pumpkins..
What to do , what to do..

Oh I know!
I'll make some!
In 1:12 scale, heh.
Carving one of these babies is just as difficult and time consuming as the real thing.


Only difference was that the innards weren't a gooey mess, but cottonwool.
The pumpkins are made out of polymer clay.


Had to make a cute ghostie too...

Saara's making a little something too.. looks like Mr. Bones needs some assembly ;)


Tomorrow you get to see what fun I've cooked up.
You see it's Miss Vanessa's hauntingly fabulous Halloween party!

(if you haven't read Vanessa's blog, I highly recommend it. Adds much needed magic to the day)

So come by tomorrow.
I even have some prizes to give away.
Boo.

Oh you shiny thing...

It was a cold night and there was dew on top...

..of my mailbox when I went out to get the newspaper this morning :)



This mailbox has been around my entire life.
That alone makes it pretty special.

I've no idea who made it.
It's still shiny and lovely.
It makes a great clang when mail is dropped inside.
Love that I can hear the mail.
It's made great clang a few times when it has dropped from the nail holding it too...

It's sturdy alright.
It can take a lot more than an ordinary plastic mailbox.
Last New Year's Eve some wisecrackers dropped in fireworks probably hoping to see it go with a bang.

Not likely.
A couple blackened dents was all they got.
Well, technically we got the dents... heh.

Think I should clean that soot?
Or should I leave it for character?

Bollywood nights, first aid, limping, Murphy's Law and peace out.

How's that for a title?
*grin*

A co-worker celebrated her 40th with a Bollywood themed party.
This is my card:

Good use of Prima flowers :)

Saara and Niina borrowed fabulous Bengali outfits from Saara's classmate to use for the party.
They looked simply faaaaabbbuuulllouuuusss!




Niina said she looked like Aladdin, hehee...
I bought pretty shiny bindis for our foreheads.

I also borrowed an outfit, but couldn't get it past my boobs... bwaahaa..
I ended up resorting to a hot pink party dress , lots of bangles and sparkly earrings.
We had a dance teacher at the party teaching us some fun Bollywood moves.
Fun fun fun!
And sorry, no pic of me..yet.. still waiting for one of the entire family taken by another co-worker.

So what's up with first aid?
I passed my course with full points.
Yay me.

I could have used some of those skills the previous day.
I was walking on the street on my way to class and stepped into a little depression on the sidewalk.
I would've gotten full points for style and landing.
Just imagine Charlie Chaplin falling down with bags in both hands, ok?
You can picture that, right?
That was me.
I fell badly on my right knee.
It is very bruised and battered.
I also stretched the ligaments the wrong way and it's quite painful. I need to rest it for a few days now. The trouble is I can't put proper support on it, until my skin has healed...sucks. So I'm limping around as little as possible.
Luckily fall break began and I have a week off work.

Oh that wasn't the part about Murphy's Law yet, ooohh nooo...
That happened Thursday morning.
It started as I turned on the computer and started reading the news at 6.45am.
All trains in southern Finland were in a standstill because of a computer glitch.
That meant that the 2nd grade homeroom teacher was stuck on the tracks.

Two minutes later I got a text message from her, we agreed I'd substitute the 1st period.
That's 19 kids.
Five minutes later she calls me to tell me both 1st grade teachers are sick. Oookaay.
Add 36 kids to the 19.
Kick previous plans out the window.
Five minutes later I get another text message... can you guess?
The other 2nd grade teacher also stuck on the tracks.
How many kids is that?
Seventy-two.
Ouch.

Fast forward to when I'm on the bus stuck in traffic...see when it rains it pours.
Snowball effect.
Trains not working= people hopping on buses and in cars= massive traffic.
I ended up calling the principal to make sure he'd be there to let the kids in.
I was only five minutes late.
Me and 72 kids.
First thought was to run away.
Second was how the hell am I going to keep all in order in ONE classroom.
Third was to run to the movie cupboard, grab Matilda and stick it in the vcr.
It worked.

The substitues came within 45 minutes.
The teachers were really late.
The funny bit?
We had just the previous day sent out a mass email to parents about being punctual when bringing kids to school.
But hey, I survived and in the end you just had to laugh, it was so absurd.

As for peace out?
Our former president Martti Ahtisaari won the Nobel Peace Prize today.
Exellent.